Pacelle Misquotes Pope, Then Solicits Donors

The deceptively named Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) recently jumped all over media reports of Pope Francis hinting that animals might go to heaven. The news delighted many animal lovers, who already hoped that their four-legged friends would join them in the afterlife.

But HSUS was elated for a different reason. As you might expect, HSUS seized the opportunity to push its extremist agenda—like PETA, HSUS has a department aimed at inserting animal rights ideology into theology. There’s just one problem: The pontiff never made the alleged statement.

Initially, news outlets incorrectly attributed quotes from former Popes—including a statement by the late Pope Paul VI that “we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ”—to the present-day Pontiff. In reality, the Pope simply stated: “The Holy Scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us.” That’s a far cry from the papal endorsement of animal heaven publicized by HSUS and its radical bedfellow, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Wayne “I don’t love animals” Pacelle celebrated the misreported statement in a blog post decisively headlined: “Pope Francis Says All Animals Can Go to Heaven.” Yet when the misconstrued events were clarified, most members of the media exercised journalistic integrity by quickly issuing corrections to their stories. With one notable exception: Pacelle has yet to acknowledge his mistake.

No surprise there. HSUS and Pacelle don’t exactly have a record of honesty and integrity. They have an agenda to push, and they don’t need facts to get in the way.

Our report shows that ninety—yes, 90—percent of HSUS’s donors were unaware that it gives just one percent of its budget to local pet shelters. It makes sense, then, that Wayne Pacelle is in no hurry to correct his inaccurate representation of the Pope. After all, HSUS is funded by donors who agree that the group “misleads people” by misrepresenting its motives and goals.

Even in the middle of his ostensibly “spiritual” blog post about animals going to heaven, Pacelle manages to sneak in a link to one of his donation pages. When will it end?